Ardhito Pramono on jazz, love, and making music: Touchdown Under at SXSW Sydney

It is nearing 1pm and the Meriton Suites lounge is stifling. The room is suffocated by contemporary furniture that suggests a bland design philosophy. A kitchenette separates the main sitting area from a smaller lounge where shadows collect. A mechanical whirring begins as someone makes coffee.

Ardhito Pramono enters earlier than expected. He is dressed entirely in black and dons a pair of sunglasses which will remain on for the course of the interview.

There is something about being in the presence of such an artist — knowing they subsist on the manner of drawing music out from the lived experience, as if extracting oxygen from air — that makes the overhead lights less harsh, the beige rugs less plain.

We sit on a couch.

Image credit: NME.

~ 

Lameah: Have you had a good morning so far? 

Ardhito: Yeah, yeah. I haven't got my coffee actually, so I’m a bit fuzzy.

L: What does an ideal morning look like for you?  

A: It’s as simple as drinking my coffee and listening to old music, I guess. Like music from the forties and fifties because I’m a big fan of traditional jazz. 

L: Would you say you’re more creative in the mornings? 

A: Ideas come to me when I’m in a studio at 4am in the morning, that's where the music comes from. 

L: So, you started your journey into music at a young age. How much of your passion for music is nature versus nurture, would you say? 

A: It's a nurture thing, I guess. I started to listen to good music when I was in junior high school, then I came here to study film at JMC. I got influenced by the musicians, by how creative and how passionate they are about music. I learnt it from here as well, so it’s a nurture thing.  

L: You've already mentioned that you really appreciate jazz, which is very evident when looking at your discography. Can you tell me about your exposure to jazz and how you grew to love it?  

A: Well, all I can remember is Louis Armstrong's voice when I was in junior high school. My father used to play it, I just knew it was the music that I would love. That's kind of, like, the root of things for me. So I started to make jazzy and old-ish 40s music. I didn’t know that audiences would actually like it, they actually miss that kind of music. 

L: The nostalgia of it.  

A: Yeah. I guess that's how I appreciate my influences.

L: Can you tell me what it is about the 40s that stands out to you? 

A: Well, there's a limit to what you're doing, right? You have to listen to old records and music to learn how to play just a chord. So, the appreciation for music back then, I think, was even greater than it is now. 

L: Tell me about your time studying film at JMC Academy. How has it  informed your approach to making music and your creative process in general?

A: Every time I listen to music, I always get a vision of what the music video will look like, you know? [When] I make my own music, I always have ideas of how the atmosphere or vibes of the song could be extended by the visuals itself. So, yeah, studying film — it's a blessing.  

L: Which of your songs did you find to be the most difficult to create?  

A: There's this one song — I wrote it in like five minutes, but the process of making the beats and all the production, it had taken about six months already. So I think that's got to have been my most difficult song to produce.  

L: Many of your songs, including ‘bitterlove’ and ‘Waking Up Together With You’ are centred around love and intimate connection. How do you return to these ideas with new and exciting perspectives or sounds each time to make sure it's not repetitive?  

A: Yeah, avoiding those repetitive chords is actually a hard thing to do. Those three chords that we always play, it represents love and connection. But, we produce the songs quite differently sometimes. ‘Waking Up Together With You’ was recorded in my bedroom and the drums we used — it was just the drum kit from the 80s. We just recorded it and we were looking for the unique sound of the 70s. So yeah, it's quite difficult. 

L: Do you ever worry that everything that's worth saying about love has already been said? 

A: I believe that everything turns out the same, you know? Sometimes I put old, old lyrics from Chet Baker into my songs — different words with the same meaning. I don't mind doing that at all.  

L: You re-contextualise those lyrics. And in that way, you’re able to give them new, fresher meanings.

A: Yeah, that's it. 

L: Are there any ideas or concepts that you haven't explored much in your songs that you would like to in the future? 

A: Yeah, in Indonesia we have tons of local musicians and local instruments. We have gamelan and many types of traditional music. I’ve always wanted to explore those things from [places in Indonesia like] Sabang to Merauke, for instance. I just really want to incorporate modern and traditional music. And there’s this genre, it sounds like Hawaiian music, but it's from Indonesia, from Ambon [specifically]. There they play steel guitar and exotic stuff that I really want to put into my songs.

L: The focus is more on the sound rather than the lyrics for you.

A: Yes.

L: As an accomplished musician, do you think music criticism is purposeful? 

A: Oh yeah, of course, of course. I always take two or three of my best friends when I try to produce a song just to see how it goes, to see how they listen to my songs. I always want that feedback and hope they actually like it.

L: What are your thoughts on professional criticism? With musicians, I feel like when you're putting out music, you're creating dialogue with your audience. But critics act as a middleman sometimes and try to represent your audience, but perhaps not in the most accurate way. 

A: Well, everybody has their own way of thinking, their own ways to express themselves, so I really don't mind. Sometimes it's true, you know, what they say about us. It's true what they say about the music, what they say about the song.  Sometimes it's true and we have to have someone to warn us that our music is actually that, you know?  

L: What advice do you have for aspiring musicians finding their way in the world?

A: Just do all of it again. Do the whole process: lyrics, songwriting, and producing. Because sometimes you're alone at home, you don't know what to do, you just don't want to produce a song at all. Get used to the process and discipline. It’ll lead you somewhere.

Find Ardhito Pramono’s Spotify here.

Look through the whole SXSW Sydney Touchdown Under program here.